Track 19 from Saydisc "Percussion Around the World" - notes from Maureen Hanke.

'Rag Megh' is an example of North Indian music featuring the tabla. Tabla are an asymetrical pair of small tuned hand played drums. The smaller treble drum is placed on the right of the two drums and the bass drum is placed on the left.
Listening to traditional performances of North Indian classical music, the tabla mainly keep time in cycles of steady beats and creates increasing elaborate rhythmic patterns around time.

Three main elements of Indian music can be identified in this piece. The drone ( a repeated sound throughout), the tune and the rhythm. The rhythm is played on the tabla, the only skin instrument in the piece. The tune is based on a rag or group of notes and treated with very strict musical rules to create an improvisation that evokes a particular mood. The first part of the improvised melody is without the tabla. The extract starts just before the tabla join in and fades before the piece is completed.

Track 7 from Saydisc "Percussion Around the World" - notes from Maureen Hanke.

'Ansam' is an example of Arabic music. The Arabian Gulf is an important geographical and trading link between the Mediterranean and the Far East. It is an area of rich demographic diversity with a commensurate variety of music.

Ansam features the darbuka and dholak.The darbuka is a type of single headed goblet-shaped drum. It is made from pottery, wood or metal and can be played either under the arm or resting on the player's knees. The base is hollow and the skin is attached by nails or glue.The darbuka originates from the Arabic region and the dholak from North India.

The piece of music opens with a solo flute. At the end of the flute statement there is a pause and the rhythm is clearly stated. The piece unfolds as an improvisation over and around the basic rhythm.
It might be helpful to think of improvisation as the equivalent of talking in language development. Improvising means making up as you play, listening to what you are playing as you go. As the piece develops, the improvisations by the darbuka and dholak become increasingly elaborate and exciting: each skin adding its own colour to the piece. As you keep listening try tapping the rhythm throughout.
Throughout the course of the piece all the instruments have a go talking over the rhythm.

( in a music session everyone could tap the basic rhythm and two people with different drums could take it in turns to improvise.)

In this recording the players start their improvisation by playing the rhythm exactly, then they gradually change parts of it; first just a beat, then a couple of notes, then half a phrase etc. This way the music has a feel of unfolding.

Track 14 from Charanga / Saydisc / Christine Richards project - 'Listen to this' for Key Stage 2. Arabic dance music from Saydisc album 'Traditional Arabic Music' (2'33")
Main feature: instrumentation.

This piece of Arabic music features traditional instruments. These are the ud (an Arabic lute) and darbouka (an Arabic drum). The Track Explorer has three learning tracks focusing on instrumentation, the introduction, ud and violin.

Fit the pieces together to complete the image of a tabla.